Africa Cup of Nations 2027 qualifying: West African rivals meet as campaign begins

The race to reach the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations will begin in September, with Cote d’Ivoire facing Ghana among a series of high-profile fixtures scheduled for the opening two rounds.

The first round of matches will take place across Africa from 23 to 25 September 2026. Teams will then return to action for the second round between 27 and 29 September, launching a qualifying campaign expected to be fiercely contested across 12 groups.

Several eye-catching encounters have already emerged from the opening schedule, including the meeting between Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. The fixture brings together two of West Africa’s most prominent football nations at the start of a qualification process in which every point could prove important.

Other notable matches during the first two rounds include Guinea’s tie against Kenya, Burundi’s clash with Algeria and Zambia’s meeting with Togo.

Comoros will face Namibia, while Guinea-Bissau will play Nigeria in another fixture likely to attract attention. Those matches form part of an opening programme featuring a number of competitive pairings from across the continent.

The two-round sequence will offer the participating nations an early opportunity to establish momentum in their groups. With the opening fixtures taking place within a short period at the end of September, teams will have little time between matches to recover and respond to their first results.

The 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign is therefore set to begin with an intensive schedule, as the 12 groups start to take shape. Cote d’Ivoire-Ghana is one of the headline fixtures, but the meetings involving Algeria, Nigeria, Zambia and the other ranked sides will also provide an early indication of the competition likely to develop over the course of the qualifiers.

The first two matchdays are scheduled as follows:

– 23-25 September 2026: first round – 27-29 September 2026: second round

Among the highlighted fixtures are:

– Cote d’Ivoire v Ghana – Guinea v Kenya – Burundi v Algeria – Zambia v Togo – Comoros v Namibia – Guinea-Bissau v Nigeria

The qualification battle is expected to be closely fought from the outset, with the first results carrying particular significance as the teams begin their efforts to secure a place at the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations.